“Six weeks after Hoffa disappeared, Frank, along with the other suspects, was summoned before the Detroit grand jury investigating the case. He took the Fifth”.
I know it’s legal but I’ve never understood the ability for someone to ‘take the fifth’. I mean if there is an investigation and you plead the fifth on the basis of being incriminated yourself doesn’t that defeat any ongoing investigation? How is it the person guilty is able to excuse themselves from the law by having this ‘right’. ? It makes no sense to me.
To the law: I’m the murderer but I’m not going to fess up? Huh?
The prosecutors have to prove their case; you can’t be forced to help them.
The Founding Fathers probably felt it necessary to try and eliminate any thought of using the time honored British investigatory Plan B, torture ‘em till they confess. In today’s Britain a suspect is allowed to reply “No Comment”. But not in the old days.
If the police could force people to testify against themselves, then the police get lazy and rely almost totally on confessions to 'solve' crimes. Then they begin to use torture to get the confessions. See, Communist Russia, National Socialist Germany, Cuba, Iran, Communist China, etc., etc.
Because the right to protect yourself is as true with words as it is with a rifle.
In the past you had to prove your innocence. That is kind of hard to do.
The framers did not want anyone have to help the government put themselves in jail.
Your confusion is due to how the relevant clause of the 5th Amendment has been mischaracterized in popular fiction and by the media. The clause says says no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” It has nothing to do with guilt or innocence, despite the popular misunderstanding that to take the 5th means you must be guilty. Instead, as others on this thread have already pointed out, it is intended to prevent the government from using coercion to obtain the result the state wants, whether or not it is the truth.
By the way, the Constitution does not require a person to state the reason why they exercise their 5th Amendment right. I don’t know when or why it became a thing that people would say they take the 5th on grounds that to speak would tend to incriminate themselves. If ever I was in such a situation, I would simply say I exercise my rights under the 5th Amendment and if pressed for a reason would quote the relevant clause and point out I am not required to give a reason.
You need to watch this video. It is worth it. Take the time.
Don’t talk to the police.
https://youtu.be/i8z7NC5sgik
That for Beowulf, the rest of you are cc’s.
It’s the job of the government to prove you are guilty, it’s not your job to prove it for them. Without the 5th amendment, the government could just come up with all sorts of ways to coerce you into confessing, whether you were guilty or not.